*** Welcome to piglix ***

Gain-bandwidth product


The gain–bandwidth product (designated as GBWP, GBW, GBP or GB) for an amplifier is the product of the amplifier's bandwidth and the gain at which the bandwidth is measured.

For devices such as operational amplifiers that are designed to have a simple one-pole frequency response, the gain–bandwidth product is nearly independent of the gain at which it is measured; in such devices the gain–bandwidth product will also be equal to the unity-gain bandwidth of the amplifier (the bandwidth within which the amplifier gain is at least 1). For an amplifier in which negative feedback reduces the gain to below the open-loop gain, the gain–bandwidth product of the closed-loop amplifier will be approximately equal to that of the open-loop amplifier. According to S. Srinivasan, "The parameter characterizing the frequency dependence of the operational amplifier gain is the finite gain–bandwidth product (GB)."

This quantity is commonly specified for operational amplifiers, and allows circuit designers to determine the maximum gain that can be extracted from the device for a given frequency (or bandwidth) and vice versa.

When adding LC circuits to the input and output of an amplifier the gain rises and the bandwidth decreases, but the product is generally bounded by the gain–bandwidth product.

If the GBWP of an operational amplifier is 1 MHz, it means that the gain of the device falls to unity at 1 MHz. Hence, when the device is wired for unity gain, it will work up to 1 MHz (GBWP = gain × bandwidth, therefore if BW = 1 MHz, then gain = 1) without excessively distorting the signal. The same device when wired for a gain of 10 will work only up to 100 kHz, in accordance with the GBW product formula. Further, if the minimum frequency of operation is 1 Hz, then the maximum gain that can be extracted from the device is 1×106.

We can also analytically show that for GBWP is constant.


...
Wikipedia

...